Celebrating Somerset

Live, work, play and learn all year round

I love Somerset above all other counties in England. In particular, it has the best National Park in the whole world – Exmoor – where I have spent the happiest days of my life.

- Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Explorer

Each year momentum grows as more people get behind Somerset Day, and this year it’s safe to say this is absolutely the best year yet!

- Anonymous

With food and craft fairs, exhibitions, competitions, concerts and of course, tea parties, we’re hoping everyone in the county has a chance to celebrate all that’s great about the county.

- Anonymous

Somerset Day is all about community, and we’re so pleased that groups throughout the county have put so much effort into organizing activities that really brought Somerset Day to life in 2018.

- Anonymous

I love Somerset because it’s where I feel most myself

- James Purefoy (Actor)

I have lived in Somerset for thirty-four years, longer than I lived in Yorkshire. Somerset has everything that I left behind when I moved here (or else I would never have been tempted away from Yorkshire). Somerset is so beautiful: it has hills, moors, a gorge, caves and a coastline. It has castles, cathedrals, grand estates and cottages. It has a wealth of wildlife in the woods, waterways and wetlands. I never tire of its beauty, there is always something to see throughout every season. Most of all what I like about Somerset is that the people made us welcome and continue to do so. As a head teacher I was always supported by my lovely parents as together we looked after their children.

- Valerie Stones, GBBO contestant

Somerset is my birthplace, my home, it is part of my soul.  Murmurations of starlings; sunrise behind the silhouette of Glastonbury Tor; the glow on the evening horizon from a trillion Carnival-float light bulbs or the throbbing heartbeat of the headline Festival act on a still summers night – these are the essence of my Somerset.

- Roger Saul, Owner of Kilver Court

Everything about the word ‘Somerset’ conjures up images that cheer and inspire, that melt the heart and ease the mind. For once, it’s a word and a county that doesn’t disappoint.

- Martin Roberts, TV presenter, Property Expert and Journalist

I’m very proud to live in Somerset and wholeheartedly recommend the quality of life it has to offer. Somerset Day is a fitting tribute to celebrate this big and beautiful county, so come along on 11th May and find out for yourself.

- Kevin McCloud, MBE

I am very much enjoying living in Somerset having lived just over the border in Dorset for many years. I am particularly fond of Wells, Bath, Frome and Castle Cary as places to visit. I am a patron of the Secret World Animal Rescue, near Bridgwater and Happy Landings at Pylle near Shepton Mallet.  The Chapel at Bruton is a favourite haunt and eating place for me.

- Valerie Singleton, Presenter

I didn’t think I’d survive originally but looking back over nearly fifty years of running this thing, Somerset is the only place the Festival could have happened. It’s the only place it could have become so big, it’s the only place it could have survived so long.

Somerset is full of non-conformists and original thinkers, it’s very anti-establishment. It has been since my family moved here over 150 years ago, has been for hundreds of years before that.  We were Methodists in Pilton, there were Quakers in Street. 

There’s nowhere else in the country I would have got away with it.

- Michael Eavis CBE, Glastonbury Festival

What would Somerset be without cider? We’re a Somerset company through and through.

My family has lived in the county for generations, and celebrating Somerset is what we do every day of our lives through our orchards, which are such a stunning part of our local environment, to the cider we make.

Somerset Day at our pub, The Railway Inn, has become a really popular annual event, with live music, cider & cheese tastings, and activities for all the family.

For us, Somerset Day is all about coming together with friends and family, in our community, and celebrating this fantastic area we live and work in.

- Martin Thatcher, Thatchers Cider